This Odd World
Plane ejects pilot into sea
TOKYO (Reuter): The test pilot of a trainer jet built for the Japanese air force was accidentally ejected when the emergency bailout system mysteriously functioned, the plane's manufacturers said.
Pilot Masahiko Kameishi suffered only minor injuries and was later rescued by a military helicopter.
Kameishi was flying the T-4 two-seater over the Pacific Ocean southwest of Tokyo when he was suddenly ejected, a spokesman for manufacturers Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd said.
His co-pilot, seated in the rear, landed the plane safely. - - - -
Only the doughnuts were real...
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuter): MIT campus police want to know who erected a dummy version of a police car atop a Massachusetts Institute of Technology building's dome.
The mockup campus police cruiser, some 150 ft (45 metres) above the ground, was fully equipped with whirling lights, a dummy officer -- and doughnuts.
MIT Police Chief Anne Glavin said the main suspects are members of the Hackers' Association, a secret group named for computer prodigies who spend hours breaking into computer systems and making alterations.
Lights, cameras... action?
LONDON (Reuter): A BBC camera crew filming a documentary about a society wedding was left at the altar when the upper-crust couple failed to walk down the aisle.
The crew spent six months filming preparations for the impending marriage of aristocrat Edward Cavenagh-Mainwaring to his childhood sweetheart Jane Burgess.
The highlight of the documentary was to have been the wedding ceremony, but Cavenagh-Mainwaring, 32, and Burgess, 23, have not yet set a date.
"We are very much in love and still engaged. We just haven't got around to marrying in time for the BBC," she said. - - - -
Dog's wartime medal fetches $27,500
LONDON (Reuter): A medal awarded to a dog who saved Britons buried alive in World War II air raids sold for 18,400 sterling ($27,500), auctioneers Sotheby's said.
The Dickin Medal, one of only 53 animal medals issued in Britain, was awarded to Antis, an Alsatian who flew with his master Czech airman Jan Bozdech in his wartime bomber. The medal was expected to fetch up to 15,000 sterling ($22,430).
After escaping German-occupied Europe, Bozdech was posted to the north-west English city of Liverpool where he and Antis rescued four air raid survivors buried in a bombed house. Antis was put to sleep in 1953. Bozdech died in 1980.
And the winner is ... dead
MANILA (Reuter): A dead man has been proclaimed the winner in a Philippine village election, the Philippine News Agency said on Tuesday.
It said poll officials declared Demetrio Salamat the winner in the village of Real Lopez in Quezon province southeast of Manila after Monday's nationwide local elections.
The officials were apparently unaware Salamat had died of a heart attack two days earlier.
Salamat's closest rival will take his place, officials said.